High Tyre Degradation led to Aston Martin’s Spanish Grand Prix Struggles – Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll feels the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team were hoping for more than just a sixth and seventh place finish in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix but struggles with tyre degradation at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya made life difficult.

Stroll made a good start and overtook eventual second-place finisher Lewis Hamilton heading into turn five, but within a few laps, he was struggling with his tyres and the pace drop off prevented him from challenging for the top three positions.

Cars around him did not seem to have the same kind of tyre degradation issues, something the Canadian hopes Aston Martin can look into and understand, but ultimately sixth place was the best possible result on Sunday afternoon.

“It was a fun battle with Lewis [Hamilton] on the first lap; I’ve pulled that move off before so I knew there was a gap and figured Lewis would leave me a bit of space, which he did,” said Stroll.  “That put me in a good position going into Turn Five and I could hold the place.

“Then, from about five laps in, we really struggled with the pace. My tyre degradation was higher than expected but the cars around us didn’t seem to have the same issue, so it’s something we’ll look to understand for the coming races.

“We bring home some good points finishing sixth and seventh, but I think we’d been hoping for slightly more today. I’m looking forward to heading to Canada, my home race, in a few days’ time.”

“I think sixth and seventh positions were the maximum for us” – Fernando Alonso

Team-mate Fernando Alonso followed the Canadian home in seventh, and the veteran Spaniard believed their finishing positions was the maximum they could have achieved in Spain.

Having finished on the podium in five of the opening six races, Alonso struggled for pace all weekend long, qualifying only ninth before only climbing two places to finish seventh.

Like Stroll, Alonso hopes the team can solve why they were unable to show the kind of pace in Spain as they had in the opening six races, as he looks to bounce back and contend for a sixth podium of the season in Canada in two weeks’ time.

“We didn’t have as much pace today on both the Soft and Hard compounds, so it was a tricky race for us,” said Alonso.  “We tried to go longer on our strategy and hoped it would pay off later with fresher tyres, but our rivals had a little more pace.

“I think sixth and seventh positions were the maximum for us. I thought our performance seemed better in qualifying, so I think we need to look at why and aim to bounce back for Canada.

“We still scored some solid points and we had no risk at the end of the race. I want to thank the fans for their passion, energy and support this weekend. It was very emotional and special for me.”

Fernando Alonso could only finish seventh in his home Grand Prix – Credit: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team